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The average American will have 9.2 surgeries over their lifetime, so any technological innovation that can aid surgeons can be the difference between life and death. There are substantial risks of any surgery so ways to improve safety and successful outcomes would have a major impact on public health. 3D Printing allows surgeons to create medical models so that they are able to precisely and accurately plan the steps of their surgery for each specific patient rather than relying only on unclear 2D X-rays, ultrasound, CT, or MRI. Being able to do this allows the surgeon to practice complex surgeries in advance to decrease the number of surprises that could occur, decreases potential error, and reduces the time and costs.
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Stratasys PolyJet-based 3D printing is able to use patient scans to create smooth parts with accuracy to .1 mm in full color helpful in various surgical procedures. There are so many benefits to using 3D physical models to increase preparedness and help save lives by avoiding mistakes. The capabilities of using 3D patient specific anatomical models could even allow surgeons to operate on cases they would have previously deemed inoperable. One example of this can be seen through a patient named Anthony, who had 5 tumors on each of his Kidneys. Anthony’s first surgery lead to a very painful and difficult recovery, but for his second he decided to have robotic surgery that was practiced multiple times using a 3D model of his Kidney. Being able to rehearse this surgery allowed surgeons to determine which tumors to remove first before cutting of the blood supply to minimize blood loss. The surgery went perfectly and the patient was able to walk after just one week when after his first surgery it took him over a month to walk again.
Being able to have a physical model to go practice with can help surgeons to find ways to get around the major risks of operating and reduce complications. The potential affects that the use of this can have on the medical world are incredible for both improving patient recovery and decreasing money spent by hospitals. It will be interesting to see what other seemingly impossible operations will be able to be done through the use of this.
Sources: https://www.manufacturingtomorrow.com/article/2018/03/3d-printing-for-surgical-procedures/11119/
Since our final project in this class deals with one of the options of 3D printing, I find this very interesting. Surgeries are very common, some small non life threatening, and some you leave your life in the surgeons hand. Being able to create synthetic organs and body parts is a fantastic way for surgeons of all skill levels to become proficient at that particular surgery. Since we can 3d print organs similar to the real thing, does that mean we can MAKE it the real thing?Some scientists believe that since we can make similar and exact replicas, we are able to inject enzymes and make the 3d printed organ function as normal inside the human body. With the increase in technology, this should be possible eventually, which would be extremely valuable to the shortage of organs.
Lewis, Tim. “Could 3D Printing Solve the Organ Transplant Shortage?” The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 30 July 2017,
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/30/will-3d-printing-solve-the-
organ-transplant-shortage.
3D printing is a fascinating new approach to surgery. I agree that being able to practice on and look at 3D models of organs can be extremely beneficial to the success and efficiency of surgery. Not only that, 3D printing of surgical tools is also becoming popular as they can be used to operate on tiny areas. This and 3D printed prosthetics are increasing in use because of their low cost as well. It seems that 3D printing is quickly becoming the future of medicine.
https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/features/3d-printing-in-the-medical-field-applications/
It’s really interesting to me that we are able to 3D print human body parts, and I think that it’ll be extremely beneficial to society for us to be able to do so. As not many people donate their organs, we often have shortages of donations and long wait lists for transplants. When a transplant is prevented by a lack of organ donation, it could very quickly become a life-threatening situation for the individual who needs the transplant. It is also sometimes difficult to find organs which are a perfect match to our own, which is required for every transplant so the body does not attack the new organ. It is now possible to 3D print body parts which are from the cells of the individual who needs a transplant, by printing a biomaterial stencil and adding the particular cells from the individual. You can read more about it here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468217916300144